AddBo - Increasing tool life and process reliability of threading tools through additive manufacturing with high-speed steel and more effective cutting fluid supply using modified cooling channels
Key Info
Basic Information
- Duration:
- 01.01.2021 to 31.12.2022
- Organizational Unit:
- Chair of Manufacturing Technology, Cutting Technology
- Funding:
- German Federation of Industrial Research Associations AiF, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy BMWi
- Status:
- Closed
Research partner
Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT
The geometric freedom of design of additive manufacturing allows new approaches in the development and design of cutting tools. Among other things, the cutting fluid supply into the contact zone between the tool and the workpiece can be redesigned by means of fluid-mechanically adapted coolant channel geometries and outlet nozzles. This allows a reduced loss of fluid flow as well as a more focused cutting fluid supply.
In the research project AddBo, high-performance and functionally adapted threading tools made out of high-speed steel (HSS) are being developed, additively manufactured by Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) and validated. The aim is to improve the cutting fluid supply to the cutting edges of taps and forming tools compared with conventionally drilled internal channels in order to reduce friction in the contact zone. As a result, the surface quality and gauge accuracy of the threads can be improved and the tool life can be increased. Since the manufacturing of threads usually takes place as one of the last steps within the production chain, process reliability is of a high economic and ecological importance in order to avoid scrap parts.
In addition to the simulation-based design of the threading tools, the qualification of a suitable high-speed steel for the LPBF process is a key issue. Among other things, crack- and pore-free processing of such high-hardness steel materials requires adapted process control. The developed taps and forming taps are then manufactured using the qualified HSS and validated in application tests. The potential and feasibility of an additively processed high-speed steel used as cutting material was demonstrated in own preliminary experiments. In this context, HSS grooving inserts were additively manufactured and successfully applied in machining the difficult-to-cut nickel-based alloy Inconel 718 in orthogonal cutting.